one restaurant in california help us before you yelp us. talk to management before posting an angry rant on line. claudia, what are businesses owners saying. >> reporter: they are not happy about it. no hard stats on this but evidence suggests that it's a growing problem with some business owners willing to pay to keep bad reviews from popping up, but not sonny. he described out a customer out after his sacramento restaurant tried shake him down. >> i am going to do a scathing review on yelp and report to you the health department. but if you buy me a hundred dollar gift yard kard to another nice restaurant in town, i will save you. to me it was extortion. >> reporter: legal experts, they say if a business is seen, that can damage their reputation, too. they say the better course is to use social media to explain their side of the story and to work harder to earn positive reviews. >> john: what are businesses supposed to do this kind of thing? >> reporter: they can't blame the website. they are not legally responsible for what your users re